I recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of my return to the United States after a year working in southeast China. While I reflected on all the things I miss about my time abroad, my favorite memories kept returning to food: dining out with friends, trying new food and a couple of attempts to master Chinese cooking with instructors while trying to overcome an incredible language barrier. With those thoughts fresh in my mind, I embarked on my first meal at Szechuan House, Iowa Citys newest Chinese restaurant.

ATMOSPHERE: The spacious restaurant is set up with booths around the perimeter and large circular tables in the center, each equipped with a lazy Susan to facilitate the family-style meals.

The wait staff sort of tag-teamed the tables. When not helping diners, they lined up toward the back of the restaurant and waited to be beckoned to a table  it took me forever to get used to this in China because I felt rude waving down a server  but it worked really well.

Each of the waitstaff who helped us was quick, courteous and friendly.

MENU: The 10-page menu features traditional Chinese dishes and other more Americanized counterparts. The choices are a bit overwhelming, but our waitress was able to talk us through the menu and point us to some dishes based on our preferences.

One unique thing this restaurant offers is a hot pot, which is similar in concept to fondue. Diners get a simmering pot of broth on the table along with a variety of raw meats and vegetables. You then cook the ingredients in the pot and eat when ready. This is a versatile way to try different foods because you can customize your meal, plus its kind of fun.

WHAT I TRIED: I started with the meat dumplings ($4.95 for four) which were served with a traditional mixture of vinegar and soy sauce. They tasted good, but the texture was a little off for me  they were sort of dry and sticky.

For my entree, I tried two vegetarian dishes and a meat dish. Everything is served family style with enough to feed two to four people, depending on how many you order.

The Eggplants with Chili Sauce ($9.25) came with a heaping mound of eggplant strips in a sweet chili sauce  it tasted almost like a sweet and sour sauce to me. As long as you dont mind the texture of squishy eggplant  which my dining partner wasnt a fan of  this dish is great.

I also tried the Spicy String Beans ($9.95) which are fried with garlic and dried red chilies to give them a great flavor.

I ordered the Tai Zi Chicken ($16.95) at the recommendation of my waitress who said it was one of the more popular spicy chicken dishes on the menu. Bite-sized pieces of chicken are fried with peanuts, garlic, scallions and other spices and a huge amount of dried red chilies. It is very spicy, delicious and identical to the spicy meat dishes I used to eat abroad. One thing to watch out for is the chicken  they cut up whole chickens for their dishes, so there are bones in some of the pieces of meat.

BOTTOM LINE: For an authentic Chinese meal  both in taste and in service  give Szechuan House a try.